Spooky Sightings in Simpkins Hall
Sarah Cash
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News
Wear said, according to Rigg, every year the training school would host a family day by the lake. At that time the lake was much larger, and all of the parents would come with their students and have a picnic on its banks. At noon, Rigg said, the bell would ring for a prayer, and then everyone present could start eating.
"(Wear) said one year, the bell rang and a family started screaming," Rigg said. "They lost a young boy. A few minutes later, someone saw him floating in the pond and fished him out. They took him into the training school and up to the top floor, where the librarian workroom was - it's the computer lab now in the Writing Center. The boy died there."
In the winter 2000 Western News, an article by Marla Vizdal stated the lake was also predator to a painter named Ralph English, who jumped in to save a drowning girl but drowned himself in 1917. Vizdal also mentions a young girl who drowned in the lake during the early 1920s after she presumably jumped in.
After these few events, however, there were apparently no other tragedies or resulting ghost stories.
Simply rumors?
According to Judi Hardin, secretary for the English and journalism department and graduate of the Western Lab School, the ghostly claims do not have any historical evidence. Hardin mentioned in an interview that she attended the small Lab School in Simpkins during the 1960s and '70s, and no ghost stories were circulating at that time.
"Everybody knew everybody at that school," she said. "If someone had died or something was going on, we would have heard about it."
Smith also agreed the 1970s were "pre-Harold time." Both Hardin and Smith remember first hearing the ghostly rumors during the early- to mid-1980s.
During this time, one teaching assistant, C.K. Bryant, documented an experience she had on the top floor of Simpkins.
Much of the supernatural activity appears to be centered on the third floor of the building, which includes a fourth-floor writing center. Teaching and graduate assistants are given cubicles in the center for scholarly use, and many assistants work late into the night grading papers.
"(Wear) said one year, the bell rang and a family started screaming," Rigg said. "They lost a young boy. A few minutes later, someone saw him floating in the pond and fished him out. They took him into the training school and up to the top floor, where the librarian workroom was - it's the computer lab now in the Writing Center. The boy died there."
In the winter 2000 Western News, an article by Marla Vizdal stated the lake was also predator to a painter named Ralph English, who jumped in to save a drowning girl but drowned himself in 1917. Vizdal also mentions a young girl who drowned in the lake during the early 1920s after she presumably jumped in.
After these few events, however, there were apparently no other tragedies or resulting ghost stories.
Simply rumors?
According to Judi Hardin, secretary for the English and journalism department and graduate of the Western Lab School, the ghostly claims do not have any historical evidence. Hardin mentioned in an interview that she attended the small Lab School in Simpkins during the 1960s and '70s, and no ghost stories were circulating at that time.
"Everybody knew everybody at that school," she said. "If someone had died or something was going on, we would have heard about it."
Smith also agreed the 1970s were "pre-Harold time." Both Hardin and Smith remember first hearing the ghostly rumors during the early- to mid-1980s.
During this time, one teaching assistant, C.K. Bryant, documented an experience she had on the top floor of Simpkins.
Much of the supernatural activity appears to be centered on the third floor of the building, which includes a fourth-floor writing center. Teaching and graduate assistants are given cubicles in the center for scholarly use, and many assistants work late into the night grading papers.
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 7
Amy
posted 10/31/07 @ 10:32 AM CST
Just FYI...a 2003 article in the Courier, "Paranormal Investigations:
Big ghosts. Big bucks. Big hoax?" by David Fitzgerald (9/8/03) mentions a Simpkins ghost found by a paranormal investigator :)
http://media. (Continued…)
Amy
posted 10/31/07 @ 10:36 AM CST
Just FYI...a 2003 article in the Courier, "Paranormal Investigations:
Big ghosts. Big bucks. Big hoax?" by David Fitzgerald (9/8/03) mentions a Simpkins ghost found by a paranormal investigator :)
Barbara
posted 10/31/07 @ 11:32 AM CST
I had a few undeniable experiences in this building. One was the little girl on the very bottom floor...I was in the ladies bathroom washing my hands. (Continued…)
Hailey
posted 10/31/07 @ 3:56 PM CST
When I was a freshmen at WIU and definitely didnt mind getting into trouble, my friends and I thought it would be fun to break into simpkins and see if these rumors were true. (Continued…)
Mike
posted 11/03/07 @ 11:07 AM CST
Many at WIU are probably familiar with the hauntings on the 11th floor of Baylis Hall where a girl hanged herself in the closet after discovering she was pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend. (Continued…)
Joseph Rickard
posted 9/09/08 @ 10:18 AM CST
yeah I can't deny Simpkins being haunted...after the haunted tours put on by A Midwest Haunting I'm freaked of Simpkins I'm personally glad I don't have any more classes in the building. (Continued…)
Simpkins: More sub-normal than paranormal
posted 9/09/08 @ 9:01 PM CST
This column ran last semester in the Courier. It's interesting, you should enjoy it.
http://media.www.westerncourier.com/media/storage/paper650/news/2008/03/21/Opinion/Simpkins. (Continued…)
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